Wish Blog

Jun 27, 2017

Volunteer Spotlight - Amber Upmann

Rockford Area Woman Finds Inspiration in Volunteering

To kick off this summer, we are proud to celebrate Amber Upmann as our June Volunteer of The Month!

An Illinoisan born and raised, Amber moved from Stockton to Rockford after graduating college. In Rockford, Amber’s day job is working as a credit analyst for one of Rockford’s local financial institutions. Amongst working, her two teenagers and their various activities, and volunteering for Make-A-Wish, Amber keeps busy!

Amber first became a wish granter nine years ago because she was looking for new inspiration in her daily life and thought she could find it in giving back in some way. After doing her research, she found out about volunteering as a wish granter and has committed much of her time to this along with other Make-A-Wish volunteer roles since then.

Over the years the variety of support Amber has provided include wish granting, serving as her region’s wish captain, and volunteering for many different Make-A-Wish events. In her role as wish captain, Amber recently organized a gathering for all of the wish granting volunteers around Rockford and the Make-A-Wish staff members they work with to meet.

“Amber is extremely dedicated to her role as a wish captain. She works hard to make sure every wish in her region is assigned in a timely manner,” Volunteer Coordinator Marisa Bognanno said.

Amber said that she loves seeing the joy in a child’s face when they talk about their wish. Amber also enjoys being able to make those special bonds with both the wish child and their families, and shares that she has maintained relationships with several families via Facebook.

“I love knowing that they are able to forget about whatever medical issues they have and focus on the magical experience that a wish brings to them,” she shared.

Upmann will continue to spread the word about wish granting and Make-A-Wish in her community. She has learned much since volunteering with Make-A-Wish, including to not stress about small matters, to always appreciate her family and most importantly that one of the most important things to have in life is hope, as with hope and the will to never give up you can get through anything.